Defence of Neutrality

Published:
First published in 1931 in Lenin Miscellany XVII.
Written (in German) in January 1917.
Translated from the German.
Published according to the manuscript.
Source:Lenin
Collected Works,
Progress Publishers,
1964,
Moscow,
Volume 23,
pages 260-261.
Translated: M. S. Levin, The Late Joe Fineberg and and Others
Transcription\Markup:R. CymbalaPublic Domain:
Lenin Internet Archive
2002
(2005).
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Acceptance of the proposition that the present war is
imperialist, i.e., a war between two big freebooters for world domination
and plunder, does not yet prove that we should reject defence of the Swiss
fatherland. We, Swiss, are defending our neutrality; we have stationed
troops on our boundaries for the express purpose of avoiding participation
in this robber war!

This is the argument of the social-patriots, the Grütlians, both
within the Socialist Party and outside it.

It is based on the following tacitly accepted or dexterously
manipulated premises.

Uncritical repetition of what the bourgeoisie says, and what it has to
say, to maintain its class domination.

Complete trust in the bourgeoisie and complete distrust of the
proletariat.

Disregard of the real, rather than imaginary, international situation
resulting from the imperialist pattern of European relationships arid the
imperialist “tie-up” of the Swiss capitalist class.

Did not the Rumanian and Bulgarian bourgeoisie give the most solemn
assurances, over a period of many months, that their military preparations
were dictated “solely” by the need to safeguard their neutrality?

Is there any serious, scientific basis for drawing a
fundamental distinction, on this issue, between the bourgeoisie of
the aforementioned countries and that of Switzerland?

Certainly not. The Rumanian and Bulgarian bourgeoisie, we are told, are
notoriously obsessed by a lust for conquest and annexation, and this does
not apply to the Swiss bourgeoisie. But that cannot lie considered a
fundamental distinction. Imperialist interests are manifested, as
everyone knows, not only in territorial, but also in financial
acquisitions.
It should be borne in mind that the Swiss bourgeoisie exports capital, no
less than 3,000 million francs a year, i.e., imperialistically exploits
backward nations. That is a fact, and another fact is that Swiss banking
capital is intimately associated and intertwined with the banking capital
of the Great Powers, that the Swiss
Fremdenindustrie.[1]
etc.; represent a permanent division of imperialist wealth between
the Great Powers and Switzerland. More over, Switzerland has reached a much
higher level of capitalist development than Rumania and Bulgaria. There can
be no question whatever of a popular “national” movement in Switzerland:
that period in its historical development ended many centuries ago. This
cannot be said of either of the Balkan states referred to above.

It therefore befits the bourgeois to try to instil in the people, in
the exploited, faith in the bourgeoisie of his own country and use
plausible phrases to conceal the realities of its imperialist
policies.

Something quite different, however, is expected of the socialist,
namely: merciless exposure that leaves no room for illusions about the real
policies of his “own” bourgeoisie. And continuation of these real
policies by the Swiss bourgeoisie, such as selling the nation to
one of the imperialist coalitions of states, is much more probable and much
more “natural” (i.e., more in conformity with the nature of this
bourgeoisie) than defence of democracy in the true sense of the word, which
would be contrary to its profit interests.

“To each his own”: let the Grütlians, as servants and agents of the
bourgeoisie, deceive the people with phrases about “defending
neutrality”.

Socialists, on the other hand, as fighters against the bourgeoisie,
must open the people’s eyes to the very real danger, proved by the whole
history of Swiss bourgeois politics, of being sold by their
“own” bourgeoisie!